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Key points
- A two-bedroom terrace near Rathdowne Village sold at auction for $1.3 million.
- A “box fresh” renovated apartment in East Melbourne sold for $1,375,000.
- 247 auctions were scheduled for the King’s Birthday long weekend.
Property listings
The buyer of a Carlton North terrace made just one $5000 bid to seal the deal, snapping up the two-bedroom home for $1.38 million.
Three buyers competed for the Victorian home at 124 Lee Street, but the auction had a slow kick-off.
Auctioneer Tom Roberts opened proceedings with a vendor bid of $1.25 million, asking for bids of $20,000. Only one bidder made a $20,000 offer, with Roberts pausing the auction to speak to the vendors.
After the auction resumed, two bidders competed, but slowly, bringing the price up to $1,375,000. That took nearly two dozen bids to get there.
The buyer swooped in to make their only bid of $5000 to seal the deal.
Roberts said buyers were using bidding tactics to slow down the pace of the auction, and ensure that they wouldn’t overpay.
A large crowd gathered to watch the sale of 124 Lee Street. Credit: Chris Hopkins
“I think what we were seeing was bidding strategies,” Roberts said after the auction. “My guess is what people were trying to do was slow the process down.”
“[The buyer] had a strategy too,” Roberts said. “He very clearly came in at the end when he thought everyone was out and put a five on top.”
The property had been listed by Nelson Alexander agent Monique Verga with a reserve price of $1.3 million. It still sold well above that reserve, despite it being the first weekend after interest rates were hiked for the twelfth time in 13 months.
Roberts said it was too soon to say if the most recent interest rate hike was dampening buyer activity.
“I think it’s a bit too early to say and historically, what we say is that a week or two weeks after is where we start to see something happening on that front,” he said. “But from what we’ve been able to glean and specifically in this area, people are still wanting to buy.
“I think there is money in the marketplace.”
The Carlton North sale was one of 247 auctions scheduled for the King’s Birthday long weekend.
Earlier, a three-bedroom East Melbourne apartment sold after passing in on one bid.
The like-new renovation at 72/211 Wellington Parade South attracted one buyer willing to put their hand up at auction, but it was enough to sell the home, Caine listing agent Toby Campbell said.
“We had a couple of last-minute pull-outs, which is typical,” he said. “There was still someone there who wanted to buy it, so it went straight to them.”
The buyers opened the auction at $1.35 million, and paid $1,375,000 in negotiations.
Campbell listed the home with a price guide of $1.3 million to $1.4 million.
“So pretty close to the top of the range, so we’re pretty happy with that,” he said. “It was pretty open and shut.”
The buyers were from the country and were looking for a weekender, Campbell said.
He said they’d liked the home because of its “ultra-renovation”.
“It was ‘ultra-renovated’ — because renovated doesn’t seem like it’s enough,” he said. “It’s been completely transformed. It was done more than 10 years ago, but it was box fresh.”
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